Manchester Police News

July 14, 1994

* Two Hartford women were charged with creating a public disturbance Tuesday after they stripped to their underwear when a friend was questioned about a suspected shoplifting of lingerie at the Pavilions at Buckland Hills mall, police said.

The two stripped to their underwear inside the store to protest a store security officer's questioning of one of their companions about a suspected shoplifting of lingerie, police said.

The officer had been alerted by an employee that the unidentified woman had walked into a dressing room with an item of lingerie and then came out empty-handed. When the employee checked the dressing room and found a used bra, she notified the officer, police said.

The woman questioned about the shoplifting was not charged, police said.

* A man who police said admitted he is a Los Solidos gang member was charged Tuesday with violating an order to stay away from the Pavilions at Buckland Hills mall, where in April he had been charged with stalking and threatening a store security officer, police said.

Leonard Strachan, 26, of 40 Olcott St., was charged on a warrant with first-degree criminal trespassing and breach of peace in the June 6 incident at the mall, police said.

In April, Strachan had been charged with stalking and threatening to kill a security officer at Sears who allegedly caught him shoplifting. He was ordered by a judge to stay away from the mall as a condition of an unspecified bond that he posted, police said.

On June 6, police said, Strachan violated the order by returning to Sears, where he was confronted by the same security officer, Bernard Petkis. Petkis, police said, had seen Strachan starting to walk out of the store carrying a videocassette recorder that he had not paid for.

When Petkis asked him if he planned to pay for the videocassette recorder, he dropped it to the floor, swore at Petkis and walked out, police said.

No bond information was available Wednesday on Strachan.

* A brawl that broke out during a basketball game at Charter Oak Park Tuesday night ended when police used a pepper-based spray, police said.

The incident happened about 7:50 p.m. during a town adult recreation league game, police said. A fight between two players led to a brawl among many players on both teams.

When the players refused Officer David Patria's orders to disperse, police said, Patria sprayed the crowd with pepper spray and broke up the melee just as backup officers were arriving.

No one was seriously injured or arrested, police said, and the referee called off the game and the one that was to follow.